URBAN AG
Seeing brown instead of green?
Wet weather can cause influx of disease to evergreens by Josh Paine, Marketing Specialist, UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Boxwood blight symptoms clockwise from upper left: tan to gray leaf lesions with a darker purplish border on an English boxwood; circular, tan spots with a brown border on upper leaves; tan blighted leaves and bare stems on an infected plant; blackening of stems and browning foliage; and black stem lesions on bare branch tips. Photos by Jean Williams-Woodward
If you're seeing brown areas in your landscape trees or hedges where you should be seeing green, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension can help. Wet winters and severe weather have been causing disease and other issues in landscape plants, especially Leyland cypress and boxwood. Over the last few years, there has been an increase in samples of these species to UGA's Plant Disease Clinic, according to Extension plant pathologist Jean Williams-Woodward in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
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Boxwood blight, first discovered in Georgia in 2014, has hit hard in established landscapes in cities including Atlanta, Augusta and Madison. Rapid defoliation is a characteristic symptom of boxwood blight that separates it from other boxwood diseases, and it can move quickly through landscapes, especially with wet weather.
